Has the game streamlined itself, do you need these micro transactions to complete the game more quickly or is it both?

It mostly has to do with the fact that you can reduce the encounter rate of the game and how faster it can be played. You know, just so you don't get to a needless grindfest.

I imagine it would be like FFVIII if you cut out all of the ridiculous camera panning and canned animations of characters getting up and down, running back and forth, and punching and kicking in the enemy's general direction, and make it so that character stats grow at a reasonable rate so you don't need to lean on the junction system so much, plus doing something like auto max boosting summons once Boost is learned so you can skip the lengthy animations instead of having to sit there for a minute or six waiting for your attack to resolve.

Basically, they probably cut a lot of the flashy showboating in favor of streamlining the gameplay.

Anyways, for any of you ape-crap over art books, like your RPGFan forum bfff here, then here's the BEST price for the Bravely Default art book. It's big, and I'm assuming (given the "2010-2013" bit on the cover) it's covering the "For the Sequel" art as well. ...It's also (I think) the first time an Akihiko Yoshida art book has gone retail that I know of... and that isn't a strategy guide.